#IATEFL2018: Making PARSNIPs palatable by Rose Aylett

Here are my notes from this very interesting and thought-provoking session I attended yesterday.

PARSNIPs are left out of classroom practice because of:

However, they are important and Ss often need the language to talk about these issues. So why boycott them?

Some essential ingredients to deal with them:

Furthermore, Ss need to develop non language-related skills such as:

focus on the LANGUAGE rather than on topic (make it a language lesson rather than a topic lesson)
develop empathy through activities such as:
- radical listening: really listen to what the other person is saying, without any interruption only backchanneling
- human angle: who picked the beans who went into my coffee this morning? –> think about the person behind an object: who picked the beans, what’s their life like? How do they feel today…?
- shoe swap: see one side of a debate/issue, role-play two actors in an issue, describe how you’re feeling in 1st person (e.g. Arianna Grande concert: first read texts about the facts, then role-play situation)

How can I use PARSNIPs in the classroom?

Experiment with these topics including them in only one part of the lesson or one specific activity. This will give you try them out before committing to a full lesson. The disadvantage can be that you touch on them too superficially.
Centre your whole lesson around them. This will give you an opportunity for deeper understanding of the topic, but can be risky if you don’t know Ss reaction or don’t know your class very well
On the spot, responding to Ss interests if and when they bring up a topic in class or show interest on it

MATERIALS:

some books (Taboos and Issues, Instant Discussions)
create your own materials! 🙂 Possibly from authentic texts –> work on assumptions of texts, reading/writing skills
- sourcing materials: websites, social media, art, festivals, literature…

What happens when a S makes a difficult statement or shows bigotry?: